[Harp-L] Re: Mustang Sally

[Bobbie Giordano <bogio@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

HA!!  I've had some close people think I'm a sender telepathically, if 
there is anything to that!  And, now just before sending this, I see the 
first 2 mentions onlist of something I just wrote about 
below.  Funny!  Maybe it's true.......  ;-)  =[bobbie]=

On 12/17/2006 11:19:59 PM, jazmaan@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> .... let me just ask you to think back to the SPAH jams you've attended
> over the years.   In my experience, funk-imbued blues is as rare as
> hen's teeth around those parts.

Having been to 11 SPAHs and 10 Buckeye Harmonica Fests, I figure I've 
attended at least 50 blues jams, and now, quite a few jazz jams as well.

Yes, maybe rare.  More rare than country-style or jazz-style blues even, 
but there have been 'moments'.  As Smokey points out, it depends on the 
added instruments to a large degree.  Things changed when we've had the 
addition of electric guitar or bass, upright bass, jazz guitarists, sax, 
accordion, keyboards, etc.  Just as diatonic jazzers in the Jazz jams do, 
Jazz chrom players always make a big diff in the Blues jams!

[Hint, hint... smo-jo]  ;)

On a parallel note to the "Mustang Sally" thread this post linked to, 
this is not an uncommon phenomenon related to only one song, as everyone 
knows.  Overplayed tunes have gotten the boring or cheesy label for eons, 
as for instance, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird", which I love to torment 
bands I'm friends with by requesting it -- they know it's a joke, of 
course.  OTOH, I also have fun when my son's on stage and do the same...

One night, he had his first solo gig [keys and vocals] attended by lots 
of relatives and older coworkers, as it usually goes.  With a big tease 
in mind, I called out loudly for "Free Bird" and he proceeded to DO IT, 
to my pleasant surprise, because he played a NINE minute version, and the 
one thing on everyones' lips afterward was how great it was to hear that 
old chestnut of a tune again!  Lots of middle-aged and over folks there 
had many fond memories around that song, apparently, and it was the giant 
hit of the night!!

Another time, another solo gig, drunken hecklers picked up on some of his 
Elton John style pieces and began yelling "Tiny Dancer, Tiny Dancer!!" 
and laughed mockingly among themselves that they were so cool and had 
probably rattled the kid!  Well, I slipped him a napkin note that said, 
"Oh, give it to 'em and shut them up!"  Next tune he segued out of one of 
his originals right into, yep... Tiny Dancer!  He didn't play the whole 
tune, but everyone got a kick out of it, including the hecklers.  And the 
whole situation was defused.

Remember the next time some staggeringly soused character falls on the 
stage slobbering "Play Melancholy Baaaaby!!" that it never hurts to have 
the old stand-bys in your repertoire.  It can be fun to put your own spin 
on them, and the comfort of familiarity for a song might work its magic 
on your audience.  After all... It's about the music!

Peace y'all,
Bobbie